Dear Mrs. Lindbergh: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: a heartbreaking work of staggering genuis
Review: I borrowed a line from author Dave Eggers to describe Kathleen Hughes' book "Dear Mrs. Lindbergh." It's an emotional story that only gets better as you read, and such a superb ending, unexpected and perfect.
Everyone should read this book!

Rating:
Summary: A gripping, tear-jerking first novel. Bravo!
Review: I started reading Dear Mrs. Lindbergh last night and couldn't stop! It is a searching examination of the challenges faced by the heroine, Ruth Gutterson. Through Ruth, Hughes explores how a woman born in the early part of the 20th century attempts to reconcile the fierce love she has for her children and husband with her passion for flying. Hughes's prose is clean and unflinching, her style underscoring her characters' drive to understand themselves and those they love. Early American aviation history enriches the novel, and through her letters to Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the reader is given a vision of Ruth's psyche and deepest desires. Dear Mrs. Lindbergh is a rarity in contemporary fiction--- Hughes builds her characters and story with grace and quiet, the novel's pull on the reader ever increasing until with the powerful conclusion, we are firmly within this gifted novelist's beautifully evoked world. Bravo to this promising author. I eagerly await her next publication!

Rating:
Summary: (3.5)A love affair with the sky
Review: One Thanksgiving weekend, when octogenarian Ruth and Henry Gutterson fail to return home from visiting their adult children for the holiday, siblings John and Margaret grow alarmed. Their parents have always been as predictable as the weather. Suddenly, they're missing. With no sign of foul play, it dawns on the brother and sister, finally, that their elderly parents may have run away.

But the heart of Dear Mrs. Lindbergh, takes a step back in time, to early twentieth-century Iowa, where the quiet rhythms of rural farms dictate the days of families that make their living from the soil. Just after World War II, an airplane flies out of the sky and into Ruth's life, landing on the patch of ground where the corn will grow. In that moment, Henry Gutterson, an Air Mail pilot, sees Ruth and falls in love. Ruth's farmer-father isn't overjoyed to lose his only child, but he can't begrudge the couple their opportunity for happiness. Ruth's years have been filled with lonely hours, yearning to escape this small confinement of her spirit. Happily, Henry gives her something to dream about.

Ruth and Henry live on her father's land, as promised, but Henry never relinquishes his flying. He delivers Air Mail on weekdays, returning home on weekends. During Henry's absences, Ruth begins a lifelong habit: writing letters to people she doesn't really know, pouring out her feelings, hopes and disappointments. The letters are never answered. When the opportunity arises to ride along as Henry's navigator, Ruth is thrilled and falls rapturously in love with flying.

When pregnancy grounds the young mother whose heart is in the clouds, the letter writing continues, especially to the wife of Charles Lindbergh, Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Ruth feels a special affinity to the pilot's wife. Lindbergh's wife continues flying even after the birth of her child. Longing for the same freedom, Ruth's letters are full of her wish to fly again. These letters become Ruth's diary, until she stops sending them, although she still writes clandestinely, storing the letters away in the attic.

Henry and Ruth, for all their love of flying, are securely grounded in each other and their sense of family. Marriage has taught them about life's painful compromises and the strength of their love finally allows Henry to "hear" his wife's silent call. Although she is a wonderful, attentive mother, Ruth craves flying, but there is no one to understand, not even Henry. He never knows desperation Ruth feels, fearing she will never fly again.

This intimate book is the compassionate tale of a young woman trying to weave a path between her life and her dreams. The author writes with a simplicity that belies the very complex emotions of her characters, especially Ruth. In their pastoral setting, this fated couple exemplifies the quiet beauty and strength of the heartland. Luan Gaines/ 2004.